My trip to the BFI

A couple of weeks ago my media class went on a trip to the BFI in central London where we attended a 3 hour lecture , at the start of this lecture the chief of the BFI showed us some professional film opening scenes and how different techniques like sound and mise-en-scene can be used effectively to make our opening scene appealing and interesting. The chief then gave us a website called art of the title which explains opening scenes in depth and this website has proved very helpful , I've been using it lately to analyse different elements in opening scenes , for example the order in which titles are placed in and how long they are shown.
We then preceded to watch some other opening scenes that students from the past have made, we then had to give them a grade level from 1 to 4 and explain why we gave them the grade. This was useful because it  showed me what the examiners look for and what mistakes many students have made so we don't make the same mistake with my group. We were then told what opening scene concepts we should avoid doing like saw type horrors because it has been done too many times. The most valuable piece of information that I received the whole day was when the chief said that its less time consuming and better if we choose a location that isn't far from where we live, on a whole I found the day very productive.